Best stripe size for two 1TB caviar blacks RAID 0? v

Hi. I just got another 1tb drive and I'd like to go raid-0, but I don't know the optimum stripe size
OS drive is on a seperate hdd ( soon to be ssd ) and the current 1tb houses the user file, movies, etc..
I just backed up the 1 tb w/ files on it to a new 2 tb wd green.

Once I establish the RAID-0 on the two 1tb drives, I'll copy over the files to the new array. Not sure if creating the array would wipe out my files, so better safe than sorry.

Any advice on optimum stripe size? Also, I was curious as to whether or not the array would affect the ability to sleep the drives when not in use.

Well, there are a multitude of sizes actually. In addition to housing my Users folder, I've got movies on there, my iTunes library, Aperture library, basically everything execpt Snow Leopard which is on a second drive.

Thanks for the replies. I'd say its about 50/50 big files to small files ratio. All of my Documents, Downloads, Movies, etc are on it. So I guess I'll go with the 64k stripe size then.

Also, does anyone know if having a RAID setup on some of your drives will have an effect on the power-saving option to spin down drives when not in use? Or will the array be active at all times?? Just curious.

As an aside, I ran XBench on my 74 gig Raptor, and a single 1TB Caviar Black. I will be installing my SSD once I create the array and then use SuperDuper to copy the files from the 2TB WD Green to the new array. I'll XBench the array and also xBench the SSD.
I ordered the ProCaddy2 from TransIntl to properly mount two hard drives in the lower optical bay. I'm going to put a 500 gig in there and the SSD. The main four bays will be the two 1TB array, the 2TB WD Green, and a 750 WD Caviar Black that is devoted to Logic Studio projects. The 500 will be for backing up the files on the 750, and for making a backup of the SSD. I will finally have a proper backup strategy in place. Will probably set the Mac Pro to wake up every Friday in the middle of the night and have the scheduled "smart" backups then.

I run 64k on my stripe of two of the 640GB Caviar Blacks. It might be possible to eek out some small bit of better performance, but the array is more than fast enough for what I use it for, so I accepted it and moved on.

Also, does anyone know if having a RAID setup on some of your drives will have an effect on the power-saving option to spin down drives when not in use? Or will the array be active at all times?? Just curious.

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Assuming you're using Disk Utility (no mention of a hardware controller), then the OS still has control of the drives, and the power management functions will still work (spin up/down once activity is resumed/timed out).

Here is something that is stumping me now... Rather than create a new thread hopefully I can get some answers from someone....

Ok, so the Intel SSD is in the lower optical bay, along with a spare 500 gig Seagate. I cannot, for the life of me, get the Intel firmware upgrade ISO disk to recognize the SSD. Says "Intel SSD is not attached or disabled".

After the first time, I rebooted back in to SL, got the warning that a disk is installed but not initialized (the SSD). So I went ahead and formatted and partitioned it as OSX Journaled. Fine. No problem.
Now I reboot to the CD-ROM again and the program still can't recognize the SSD. Is this because it's on one of the motherboard SATA slots?? THat's the only thing I can think of. I'd really prefer NOT to dig back into my MP to remove the SSD and hook it up to one of the four internal slots.

Also, does this firmware even make a difference? Wouldn't having TRIM help it?? Do you think because the drive is blank that it's not recognizing it??

Here is something that is stumping me now... Rather than create a new thread hopefully I can get some answers from someone....

Ok, so the Intel SSD is in the lower optical bay, along with a spare 500 gig Seagate. I cannot, for the life of me, get the Intel firmware upgrade ISO disk to recognize the SSD. Says "Intel SSD is not attached or disabled".

After the first time, I rebooted back in to SL, got the warning that a disk is installed but not initialized (the SSD). So I went ahead and formatted and partitioned it as OSX Journaled. Fine. No problem.
Now I reboot to the CD-ROM again and the program still can't recognize the SSD. Is this because it's on one of the motherboard SATA slots?? THat's the only thing I can think of. I'd really prefer NOT to dig back into my MP to remove the SSD and hook it up to one of the four internal slots.

Also, does this firmware even make a difference? Wouldn't having TRIM help it?? Do you think because the drive is blank that it's not recognizing it??

Here is something that is stumping me now... Rather than create a new thread hopefully I can get some answers from someone....

Ok, so the Intel SSD is in the lower optical bay, along with a spare 500 gig Seagate. I cannot, for the life of me, get the Intel firmware upgrade ISO disk to recognize the SSD. Says "Intel SSD is not attached or disabled".

After the first time, I rebooted back in to SL, got the warning that a disk is installed but not initialized (the SSD). So I went ahead and formatted and partitioned it as OSX Journaled. Fine. No problem.
Now I reboot to the CD-ROM again and the program still can't recognize the SSD. Is this because it's on one of the motherboard SATA slots?? THat's the only thing I can think of. I'd really prefer NOT to dig back into my MP to remove the SSD and hook it up to one of the four internal slots.

Click to expand...

On my personal machine, my boot SSDs (Corsair P-Series) are installed in the lower optical bay through the eSATA ports. I have never had an issue with them. Is you machine a 2009? There may be an issue with running through the PCIe bus?

On my personal machine, my boot SSDs (Corsair P-Series) are installed in the lower optical bay through the eSATA ports. I have never had an issue with them. Is you machine a 2009? There may be an issue with running through the PCIe bus?

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It's an '08, and OS X can use HDD's or SSD's attached to the ODD_SATA ports (Windows or Linux cannot; it's an unfortunate issue in the '08 systems). I'm not quite sure if they're capable of loading firmware from them though, and VirtualRain may be correct that the HDD bay is the simple solution for updating the firmware. Once flashed, the drive can be relocated back to the ODD_SATA port.

It's an '08, and OS X can use HDD's or SSD's attached to the ODD_SATA ports (Windows or Linux cannot; it's an unfortunate issue in the '08 systems). I'm not quite sure if they're capable of loading firmware from them though, and VirtualRain may be correct that the HDD bay is the simple solution for updating the firmware. Once flashed, the drive can be relocated back to the ODD_SATA port.

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Mine is a 2008 too. I do not have much experience with the Intel drives, but I have heard of some issues with 2009 MPs and SATA drives going through the card bus. Worth a check.

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